JDk 1.5 regex utility

Hi Friends I am currently doing the migration from jdk1.3 to jdk 1.5...So also need to migrate from apache regex to java.util.regex. Both the packages have almost all the utility methods common functionally...however in apache regex, there is a method called getParen(int) which gives the value of the specified sub expression after the match is successful. Is there any such method or way of achieving the same using jdk 1.5 regex ?....

I was searching the jdk 1.5 docs to see how i can tell the expression that it may encounter a meta character like *, [, etc.

I have an expression in apache regex codebase as "(((\\d+)\\d*)\\d*)D"... I guess the single "\" represents a meta character....may be a sample data for this expression can be "*20*20*2006"...pls correct me if i am wrong...

My query is in jdk 1.5 how can i write the above expression...the only problem i am facing is the represantation of the meta character in jdk1.5...